Bee Gees - Their Greatest Hits: The Record (2001)

Note: these CDs released using HDCD encoding.

From Wikipedia:

Their Greatest Hits: The Record is the career retrospective greatest hits album by the Bee Gees, released on UTV Records and Polydor in November 2001 as HDCD. The album includes 40 tracks spanning over 35 years of music. Four of the songs were new recordings of classic Gibb compositions originally recorded by other artists, including "Emotion" (Samantha Sang), "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick), "Islands in the Stream" (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton), and "Immortality" (Celine Dion). It also features the Barry Gibb duet with Barbra Streisand, "Guilty", which originally appeared on Streisand's 1980 album of the same name. It is currently out of print and has been supplanted by another compilation, The Ultimate Bee Gees.

Regarding the "new recordings of classic Gibb compositions," either skip 'em or, better yet, listen to the originals. I prefer the later disco music so things get going for me at track 15 on disc 1, but it's a decent 2 disc set (would have made an unbelievable 16 track single disc of top ten hits). Like most 2 disc greatest hits compilations, this thing falls apart at the end. Oddly, in addition to singles by the trio, there's a solitary solo track from Robin. Thanks for the (kinda sorta) chronological sequencing, Polydor. It shows the growth of the group and how they adapted their music to what was popular at the time.

Billboard, December 8, 2001, p. 53

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #49

Tracks:

Song	Album	Year	Pop	AC
New York Mining Disaster 1941	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	14
To Love Somebody	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	17
Holiday	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	16
Massachusetts	Horizontal	1967	11
World	Horizontal	1967
Words	(single release)	1968	15
I've Gotta Get a Message to You	Idea	1968	8
I Started a Joke	Idea	1968	6
First of May	Odessa	1969	37
Saved By The Bell	Robin's Reign	1969
Don't Forget to Remember	Cucumber Castle	1969	73
Lonely Days	2 Years On	1970	3	28
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart	Trafalgar	1971	1	4
Run To Me	To Whom It May Concern	1972	16	6
Jive Talkin'	Main Course	1975	1	9
Nights On Broadway	Main Course	1975	7	16
Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)	Main Course	1976	12	9
Love So Right	Children Of The World	1976	3	14
If I Can't Have You	(b-side)	1978
Love Me	Children Of The World	1976
You Should Be Dancing	Children Of The World	1976	1

Song	Album	Year	Pop	AC
Stayin' Alive	Saturday Night Fever	1977	1	28
How Deep Is Your Love	Saturday Night Fever	1977	1	1
Night Fever	Saturday Night Fever	1978	1	19
More Than A Woman	Saturday Night Fever	1978		39
Emotion		1994
Too Much Heaven	Spirits Having Flown	1978	1	4
Tragedy	Spirits Having Flown	1979	1	19
Love You Inside Out	Spirits Having Flown	1979	1	15
Guilty	Guilty	1980	3	5
Heartbreaker		1994
Islands In The Stream		2001
You Win Again	E.S.P.	1987	75	50
One	One	1989	7	1
Secret Love	High Civilization	1991
For Whom The Bell Tolls	Size Isn't Everything	1993	109	29
Alone	Still Waters	1997	28	8
Immortality (demo)		1996
This Is Where I Came In	This Is Where I Came In	2001		23
Spicks And Specks	Spicks And Specks	1966

Nothing from the Sgt. Pepper movie??!?

Notable Top 40 omissions: My World (#16 in 1972), Alive (#34 in 1972), Boogie Child (#12 in 1977), Edge Of The Universe (#26 in 1977), He's A Liar (#30 in 1981), and The Woman in You (#24 in 1983). Plus, I'd love to hear Barry take his turn on Grease (#1 for Frankie Valli in 1978).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I was born in 1966 so some of these songs have been around almost my entire life. That's too many memories for this space, but I will say my favorite Bee Gees track wasn't recorded by Barry, Robin, and Maurice, it's the Yvonne Elliman version of If I Can't Have You.

Okay, I'll share one. One day my sister came home with the Spirits Having Flown LP. Instead of listening to it in her room on her stereo, we listened to it on Dad's BIC 1000 turntable in the study. All the hits are front-loaded on side one of that album. We listened to both sides and then I begged my sister to spin side one again. She agreed. And we didn't get in trouble for messing with Dad's stereo (that would come later for me, as he came home early one afternoon as I was blaring Freeze-Frame loud enough to be heard across the street 😈).

Previously revisited for the blog:
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack (1977)